The hostel I’m in at the moment does free vodka, rum and tequila between 8 and 9 pm each day, so upon arrival yesterday I thought it only proper that I take advantage of it once while I am here (many of you know I’m not into alcohol… in fact… I have a firm dislike for the stuff!) However, I’ve been know to partake on the odd occasion.. and my first night at Hostel Lobo De Mar became one of those occasions..

It started with a free welcome shot of tequila. Tequila!! Of ALL the foul alcohol beverages to choose from, Tequila is up there for me as one of the most disturbingly disgusting tasting concoctions you can buy! But hey, I thought of my good friend Wedge, who has often been know to try and persuade me into a shot of tequila (and one time he managed to succeed) and I thought…

What would Wedge do?

Well the answer was obvious. So I claimed my shot and bought a beer to chase it down with…if it wasn’t for the life-saving citrus to suck after the putrid liquid had abused my esophagus on it’s way to my stomach, the night may have gone very differently, as that surely would have put me off drinking any more of it.

But because it’s actually not THAT bad when you have the sour shock of the citrus to compliment it… I ended up having a few more, mainly because it was free. Well… Out of the 3 rank tasting spirits available, Tequila had somehow made it to first place in my preferences… so during this hour I had maybe a few more.

I made 3 new friends sitting here, Max, Gabriel and Lilia… From the Netherlands, Maryland USA and Australia respectively. They were all really interesting and we chatted for a few hours before being offered to go on a ‘Pub Crawl’ by one of the hostel workers, which we all agreed to.

He laid down the deal -

100 pesos (£4) - 4 clubs - and a free shot of Tequila or Mescal in each club for guys or an open bar for girls. Sounds good right? I do repeat - I didn’t come out to travel to party… but, I was already fairly drunk so… it seemed like a good idea and I thought… let’s get that little bit of party animal out of me now early on in the trip… which come the morning, turned out to be a good call.

So we hit the strip, a chaotic fairground of bass, babes and bad drugs round every corner. Deep vibrations, an abundance of gyrations, and regular invitations to buy what I assumed would be very low quality ‘cocaine'. The first club was weird, but after a long wait at the bar we eventually got our free shot of Mezcal (exact same as Tequila in terms of taste, except powdered chili replaces the salt in the process).

I then proceeded to dance to pretty average quality house music for quite some time… I was pretty happy. I love to dance and, although the music could have been more to my taste in a big way, I’m on such a high from being here and I guess from all the Tequila, beer and Mescal, that I probably could have danced there all night… but alas… we had more crawling to do…

On to the next club, this one is much bigger and better vibes, is on the beach, it has a pool, and it has a bloody massive foam pit. Now I’ve never been to a foam party before but… for me the novelty wore off very quickly. Within a few minutes of dancing around in the foam, you soon realize you’re clothes are now actually as though you’d been in a heavy downpour - not completely soaked, but very moist and clammy… my shoes are still drying out now. There were some AMAZING breakdancers toward the end.. which reminded me how much I want to learn to breakdance (and how badass I would be at it 😛).

After they finished it changed to naked women dancing while the whole crowd watched, phones out, camera rolling… It wasn’t tasteful… and it wasn’t long before I started feeling a bit sick (from the Booze not the Boobs). I decided to split off from the group and go home at about half 3. Thankfully, I downloaded all of South America on Google Maps to be used offline - so I actually made it home.

When I woke? My head was pounding. I felt a bit nauseous and knew it was going to be a rocky start to the day. I went up to the roof terrace for breakfast and water. I managed to eat one slice of watermelon before my body was ready to purge whatever leftover poison was still causing havoc in my system.

Afterwards I went upstairs again for round 2. This time, I was saved… by a new friend and good conversation. A guy from London called Liam came and sat with me and we talked, he’d been traveling to Central and South America several times before so… yet again I was receiving awesome downloads from the Universe that will affect my future travels. By the time we finished chatting I was back to normal again… and very thankful too.

So the hangover…

In my opinion, the WORST ‘comedown’ possible from any drug induced state (let’s stop pretending that Alcohol is not a drug… not only is it a drug, it’s one of the most damaging! No wonder it’s so socially encouraged!).

It’s not for me, and after last night I won’t be drinking again during my time here.

A drink? Perhaps.

Getting drunk? No thanks!

Overall it was an awesome night and I met lots of new friends along the way. But, it would have been just as good or BETTER if I was sober and on point, and didn’t wake up feeling silly for voluntarily inducing this less than desirable state.

You are fun, outgoing, adventurous, confident, funny, courageous, brave, interesting and so much more… we do not need Alcohol in order to experience these qualities within ourselves.

Yet, I do not judge or condemn any one for drinking… if I did… I'd literally have NO FRIENDS 😛

Also that would make me an arsehole… no one likes arseholes, especially the arseholes themselves.

Sorry for my repeated use of the word arseholes…

Great word though.

❤️

Above ^^ - One of my new friends that night Gabriel - He really seemed to have a great time and danced in the foam most the night… before jumping in the pool and getting himself chucked out 😀 He was studying Environmental Science and had been lucky enough to be able to work on a program as part of his course. He found one in Panama whereby he spent 9 weeks learning about and developing a new habitat to save an endangered species in that area… Fascinating and inspiring stuff! He’d then spent another 3 months traveling from Panama, through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. He gave me at least 3 new locations to visit, and lots of useful information for my travels between them. Very thankful to have met him… he went home today!!

I ‘just so happened’ to meet him on his final night so…

Just perfect timing as per usual Universe…. Thank you ❤️